


Love Sets You Free

by thingyoudowiththatthing



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Blame Thanos, F/M, Long-Distance Relationship, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Temporary Character Death, not as bad as it sounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 12:39:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18261473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingyoudowiththatthing/pseuds/thingyoudowiththatthing
Summary: Y/N is wild and free. In many ways Steve's polar opposite but maybe she is just what he needs.





	Love Sets You Free

Y/N was everything Steve never knew he wanted and nothing like he had ever imagined all at the same time. She was wild and free, drifting in and out of town as her assignments began and ended. She loved her job as a wildlife photographer and her life on the road. She was free-spirited and bubbly, reawakening the rebellious young man in Steve he thought he had long forgotten.

When she was around everything felt easier. When he was around her, he knew there were no expectations. There was no image he had to be aware of upholding with her. She didn’t see Captain Rogers. She just saw Steve and with her, he remembered who he had once been.

It wasn’t that he was pretending to be someone else. He wasn’t and he never would. The responsibilities had just somehow taken over his life and he had forgotten the stubborn, playful kid he had been. She challenged him in ways no one really had. Not since he had lost Bucky at least.

She saw what laid beneath the mantle he had taken on, just like his best friend had seen the kid behind the diseases that had plagued him them. Bucky hadn’t bubble wrapped him. He had treated him as his equal and Y/N never once treated him as a stoic man or a celebrity to gush about. He was just Steve to her.

She enjoyed pushing his buttons, dancing in the rain as he told her she would get sick. Somehow her laughter and carefree ways always made him forget all reason and of course, he ended up soaking wet as he spun her around, laughing as the rain came crashing down on them.

She kissed him freely when she felt like it, no matter who might be looking. She laughed giving his hand a squeeze when he blushed. The twinkle and adoration in her eyes would always make him forget the laughter or whistles of his friends or bypassers that recognized the blushing symbol of their country. There was only her each time he pulled her back into her arms, kissing her back with all the love he held for her.

Her touch set his soul and body on fire as she fell into bed with him. Steve had always taken relationships seriously, even though he had barely ever had any. That’s how he had come to view them. He would have thought that a girl laughing during sex would have been a turn-off. Maybe because a part of him would have thought she would be laughing at him. Years of girls looking at you a certain way is hard to shake even if their gazes were very different now.

Y/N never laughed at him though. She laughed with him as both of them struggled with their remaining clothes or just to fit his rather large frame into her small bed without rolling off it. She made it fun and yet somehow the experience was never less powerful or intimate in spite of their giggling and fits of laughter. It was freeing and filled with love. It was wild and passionate, just like their relationship. Y/N brought things out in Steve he missed when she was gone.

That was the thing with Y/N. She couldn’t be tied down or held back. Steve never doubted her love.  He knew that no matter how much it hurt saying goodbye to her, either when she left on another assignment or went on a trip with her friends to some exotic part of the world she had been dying to see, he knew that she would always return to him.

Steve knew that if he had asked her she would have stayed, but a part of her soul would die a little as the experiences that she could have lived passed her by. Y/N wasn’t made to be tied down and Steve loved her too much to try.

When everything with the accords and Bucky had happened, she had been away. He hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to her and yet she still found him. She had shown up in Wakanda being led in by the Dora Milaje to stand before the King. She had been arguing with him as Steve entered the room. Sam had gotten wind of her arrival and had called Steve before her feisty temper and insisting to see Captain Rogers would land her in the dungeons.

T’Challa had been more than a little amused by the young woman before him. He got the feeling that she was telling the truth but he couldn’t be sure before Steve confirmed her story himself. As soon as he did, T’challa had with one nod ordered General Okoye to release her and within seconds Y/N’s arms were wrapped around Steve’s neck, kissing him as if they were the only people in the room.

Steve had tried to get her to leave Wakanda after the initial rush of seeing her again had worn off. She had refused, insisting she was safe under the King’s protection which was the truth. She told Steve there was more than enough adventure for her in this place, filled with beauty and marvels. She could wait for the world to get their heads out of their asses and realize they needed him.

So their roles reversed. Steve left, gathering up alien weapons that kept showing up on earth. Leading missions and keeping the world safe, even if had rejected him. Y/N stayed taking care of Bucky, learning the ways of Wakanda and taking as many photos as the locals allowed her.

She seemed happy as she roamed the place, telling Steve of all she had experienced as he returned to her, tired and battle weary. Her light shun so brightly it kept him alive too. The world might have turned their back on him, but that didn’t mean Steve was ready to turn his back on them. He had all he needed right here. Friends, family, and love.  

That was until Thanos’ attack and half of the world disappeared, along with Sam, Bucky, and Y/N. Steve was lost and angry at himself. He wasn’t giving up. He was going to get them back or die trying. Luckily his plan worked and the world and everyone eventually returned to normal.

The experience stayed with Steve though and after a year he still didn’t feel fully like himself. Y/N stayed by his side, knowing that he needed her too. She saw the emptiness in his soul and how the job he once thought he needed had become a burden to him. She stayed silent, knowing he needed time. Right up until she couldn’t anymore.

“Steve…” she approached him carefully as he stood in the bathroom, stripping off his uniform, preparing for the night. “I got an offer…”

She watched his shoulders tense with the words, which he knew had been coming ever since the world returned to normal. She was leaving and he should be okay with that. Steve knew that nothing had changed. She was still who she had always been. She needed to run free and she would always return to him. Steve had changed though. She was the only light in a world that seemed bleak and heavy now.

“Where?” Steve asked, without turning around and without looking at him.

“Thailand.”

“How long?” Steve felt the tears press against his eyes, fearing her answer. He didn’t want to be without her but he loved her too much to ask her to stay.

“Six months,” she replied, swallowing harshly as his entire body seemed to slump down a bit. She hurried up behind him, wrapping her arms around his small waist and resting her head against his broad shoulder, tenderly kissing his skin.

“Come with me, Steve. You need a break from it all. Run away with me,” she lured and Steve fought to hold back his teens as he turned in her embrace.

“Sweetheart I can’t. The Avengers they need…” he started, but the interrupted him with a gentle kiss.

“No honey. They need Captain America. It’s a title and a mantle, you know Sam or Bucky can carry for you and they would without question. The Avengers will miss Steve I know that because they love him almost as much as I do and I miss him every time we are apart,” she smiled a little, turning her plea into light teasing.

“I can’t ask them too…” Steve started, before she interrupted him again, this time with words.

“It was their idea, Steve. You’re tired. You need to get away for a while. I see it and they see it. The only one that refuses is you. Please come with me?” she asked again. There was a sadness in her voice that Steve had never heard before as she looked at him with so much hope and despair in her eyes all at the same time.

He pulled her into a tight embrace as he felt the weight of the past years come crashing down on him. She was right. She always was. He had lost himself in the job and the pain of loss. He needed this as much, if not more than she did.

“Yes,” he whispered into her hair, smiling slightly as he felt her hold on him tighten. Now the word was spoken there was no way she was letting him back out of this and he didn’t want her too. His love had allowed Y/N to run free, maybe it was time to trust her love to let him find his own peace and freedom with her.


End file.
